Political row over plan to give every family in J&K unique IDPolitical row over plan to give every family in J&K unique ID

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is planning to create an authentic database of all families in the Union territory with each of them having a unique alpha-numeric code – the objective being easy selection of eligible beneficiaries of various social welfare schemes.
The proposed move to allot “Family ID” has been welcomed by the BJP but panned by other parties which raised concerns over personal data safety.
At the recent national conference on e-governance in Katra in Reasi district, Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar released the Digital J&K Vision Document, unveiling the government plan to create an authentic, verified and reliable database of all families of the Union territory.

According to the vision document, “Each family will be provided with a unique alpha-numeric code called JK Family ID. The data available in the family database would be used to determine eligibility through automatic selection of beneficiaries for receiving social benefits.
“The database would identify each and every family in J&K and would collect the basic data of the family, provided with the consent of the family, in a digital format.”
Commissioner Secretary of the IT Department Prerna Puri said the objective of creating the database, which will be at par with Haryana’s ‘Parivaar Pehchaan Patra’, is that families or individuals will not have to apply to receive benefits under each individual scheme.

“Once the data in the JK Family ID database is authenticated and verified, a beneficiary will not be required to submit any more document to avail a service,” she told PTI.
The Congress, National Conference and the PDP slammed the proposed move.

Congress chief spokesperson and former legislator Ravinder Sharma questioned the government’s intention and also its capacity to protect such digital databases from cyber attacks.